British Zombies Rule

Rating: 7/10 (23 May 2007)

A team of animal rights activist break into Cambridge University's primate testing lab to free the caged monkeys. In spite of the dire and stressed warning of the scientist on hand, they released one of the chimps and then all hell broke loose. I wonder what the message there was? Anyway, 28 days later a guy wakes up in an empty hospital to find out that absolutely no one is around.
This is, by far, the best zombie (or zombie-like) movie I've ever seen. A different yet interesting take on the whole zombie idea. There weren't leagues of zombies crawling all over the place leaving hardly any place to hide, instead they were scattered and largely hidden. Plus, I like the idea that they weren't dead, just infected, so know limbless or severely maimed dead people motoring around looking for brains or flesh to eat. And no shooting people in the head only to take them down.
I guess what I liked most about the movie was the sign of hope that was present. With the other zombie movies I've watched the zombies are all walking dead; which is to say, since they are already dead they aren't going to effectively die again unless a bullet is put in their head. There are only so many bullets and the walking dead seem limitless. In this movie there was the very real possibility of life continuing, or better still, a cure being found because it was a disease after all.
This was an excellent movie leaving very little to beef about. I especially liked Naomie Harris' character (Selena). She was tough and non-cliché. The moment she suspected her accomplice had been infected she proceeded to chop him up with reckless abandon. Although she did partake in the ultra-cliché passionate-kiss-while-still-in-danger later on in the movie. There was also a good sub plot with the precarious position Jim (Cillian Murphy), Selena, and Hannah (Megan Burns) were put in with the British army. Here it is, they finally believe they are safe once they are amongst the army and away from the carnivorous infected, but they jumped out of the pan and into the fire. They escaped the blood thirsty infected to the sex hungry army.
"28 Days Later" is a new and interesting spin on zombies worthy of merit. With this new version of zombie there is a greater vulnerability of being zombized (just see how Frank was infected in the most astronomically infinitesimal way), but on the other hand there is a greater hope of survival. I like it.